Photograph (SwanQueen)
by chloenicholas
Summary: To anyone in Storybrooke, it was obvious that Regina Mills was on the look out for her happy ending. What if it had been much closer to her than she ever anticipated?


Standing at the town line, Emma frowned. Everything that had happened in the past few years: her son finding her, finding her parents, making many friends and overcoming fears was soon going to vanish in a puff of smoke. It was true, Emma didn't want this to happen, but she had no choice. Those words repeated themselves in her mind. No choice. She had no choice. She was the saviour, and nothing could change that. That title gave her no choice but to help the people standing before her. She couldn't just back down from such a title. But she also remembered the people in front of her were her friends, family, _loved ones_.

The residents of Storybrooke looked at the girl whose face was etched with great sadness and regret. Regret that this was partially her fault. Her fault for ever coming to storybrooke, and staying there too. They were just as sad as she was, having to say goodbye to the place they had called home for over two decades. The curse would take them back to the Enchanted Forest, even though many of them wanted to go back, they had gotten so used to Storybrooke and calling it home that they simply didn't want to live. Henry stood next to Emma, looking at Regina with sadness. Regina didn't want to do this either. But she, also, had no choice. Regina had to trust Emma, and trust she did. She knew Emma could do this, she knew that she could be a great mom to their shared son. She knew it all along, she just didn't want to show it, show that she really did care about the blonde.

The two women had become quite close over the last few years. The two friends started off on a rough patch, but soon managed to work out their differences and find their similarities in one another. Regina didn't want to admit it, but she thought of Emma as a very close friend, just friends that never spent that much time with each other, unless it was really necessary. Regina gave Emma a weak smile, knowing this would be the last time she sees the woman. 'Might as well make the moment one to remember.' Regina thought. She didn't want to act a little _obsessive_ over Emma, just because this was probably the last time she would ever see her, and Emma would forget this,

"Emma, you have to go." Mary Margaret said, frowning at her daughter. Of course, deep inside, she didn't want to let this happen. She didn't want to let go something she had just found.

"I just found you." Emma's voice cracked, tears forming in her eyes. For years Emma dreamed of having parents and being a family, and that would soon be taken away from her for a second time.

"And now it's time for you to leave us again. For your best chance. For his." Mary Margaret looked at her grandson, tears prickled to his eyes.

"No. N-no. I'm-I'm not... done. I'm the saviour, right? I'm supposed to bring back all the happy endings. That's what Henry always said." Emma placed her hands on her son's shoulders, kissing the top of his hair.

Mary Margaret smiled at her daughter, thinking about the happy memories with her Emma. "Happy endings aren't always what we think they will be. Look around you. You've touched the lives of everyone here." Everyone in the street nodded, making Emma emotional. A lone tear escaped her eye, dripping down on her red, leather jacket.

"But we're a family." Family. It made Emma think about her past. Each time she was thrown from family to family and then ending up finding her real family. It made her think about her younger days when she didn't use to fit in with a family and being sent back to the orphanage the next day.

Emma shook her head. It wasn't time to think about bad memories. She needed this to be a final, happy moment. "Yes, and we always will be. You gave us that." Mary Margaret couldn't put into words of how proud she was of Emma. She could believe how much she has done to help in such little time.

"You and Henry can be a family. You can get your wish. You can be like everyone else. You can be happy." David placed one hand around his wife's shoulders, smiling at his daughter. He had to agree with Mary Margaret, Emma really has done a great job of being the saviour.

"It's time to believe in yourself, Emma. There's time for you to find hope." Mary Margaret held back some tears as Emma's left her eyes. She had to believe in herself.

Regina gave a small cough, Emma turning to the dark haired woman. "I've known you for some time and all I wanted was for you to get the hell out of my life so I can be with my son. But really..." Regina took a pause as her voiced cracked, trying to form her small speech in her head. "What I want is for Henry to be happy. We have no choice. You have to go." Emma nodded.

"Okay." Emma answered reluctantly. It was now or never. She had to do this for their son.

Henry stepped forward, a panicked expression soon etched itself into his face. "This isn't fair. It's all my fault." Henry said, more to Regina than the whole group.

"What do you mean?" Regina asked her son, confused.

"If I had never gone to get Emma, if I just lived under the curse with you, none of this would have ever happened. I thought I was alone. I-I thought you didn't love me. But I was wrong." Regina had knelt down to Henry's level placing both of her hands on his shoulders.

"Henry. I was wrong too. It wasn't your fault, it's mine. I cast a curse out of vengeance and I'm-I'm a villain. You heard Mr. Gold. Villains don't get happy endings." Henry knew that his mom wasn't a villain anymore. Regina had changed - and definitely for the good.

"You're not a villain. You're just my mom." Regina pulled Henry into a tight hug, both watching Emma say goodbye to the rest of the group. As she finishes, Regina lets go of Henry, turning to the younger woman.

"Emma. There's something I haven't told you." Regina was quite scared to continue with what she had to say. Actually, she didn't want to say it at all.

"What now?" Emma sighed. She didn't know what else there could be to say. She was again losing her parents to another curse.

"When the curse washes over us, it will send us all back. Nothing will be left behind. Including your memories. It's just what the curse does. Storybrooke will no longer exist. It won't ever have existed. So these last years will be gone from both your memories. Now we'll go back to being just stories again." Emma could have sworn she saw a tear leave Regina's eye. The news hit Emma, hard. She started to panic inside. What would she remember...these last few years?

"What will happen to us?" Emma asked, hoping to get a good answer from the woman.

"I don't know." Regina shook her head, sighing. She didn't have a clue, and this actually scared Regina.

"Doesn't sound like much of a happy ending." Emma chuckled quietly, looking at Regina. Emma was going to miss the woman, and that was such a crazy thing.

"It's not," Regina chuckled before continuing. "But I can give you one." Emma was slightly taken aback. Regina was willing to do that for her? And for their son?

"You can preserve our memories?" The blonde asked, surprised.

"No, I can... do what I did to everyone else in this town. And give you new ones." Emma looked at the woman who was also looking at her.

"You cursed them and they were miserable." Regina shook her head walking forward.

"They didn't have to be." Regina took Emma's small hands into her own, gripping them gently. To Emma, it felt different...'a good different' her mind added. "My gift to you is good memories, good life for you and Henry." Henry walks over to Regina's side, her pulling him into a one armed hug. "You'll have never given him up. You'll have always been together." Regina was crying, Emma was crying. They both didn't realise that this could get so emotional. Especially between two former enemies.

"You would do that?" Emma asked in disbelief. She knew Regina was only doing this for Henry, but it made Emma believe that Regina and she had a good friendship, something Regina would never want to give up.

"When I stop Pan's curse and you cross that town line, you will have the life you always wanted." Coming from Regina, this plan sounded so good, but in her head it was different. All those years ago, Emma gave up Henry because she believed that she couldn't do it. Now standing here in Storybrooke and Regina offering her the opposite memory, it didn't really sound like such a great plan. It simply wouldn't be real.

"But it won't be real." Emma spoke aloud, taking in every last memory she had in Storybrooke.

"Well, your past won't. But your future will. Now go. There isn't much time left till the curse will be here any minute." Regina gave a warm smile to her son and Emma. This was it. Emma was scared. As she walked over to her parents saying one last goodbye, Henry did the same to Regina.

Both mother and son walk to the yellow bug, climbing in and looking at the rest of the group. This was goodbye. Emma wasn't ready for this. She wasn't ready to say goodbye to the people she loved the most.

As Regina tore off part of the scroll she was holding, it glowed purple. Crumpling it into a ball, she uses her magic to her full potential, trying to hold off the curse for a few seconds more.

Emma looked back once more before driving over the town line. Memories flashed in her mind as she turned to her son, them both smiling at each other.

Emma knew where she had to go. She had to go home. Home to New York.


End file.
